Take away the contests of the martyrs, and you have taken away their crowns.
Interpretation
This quote implies that the struggles and sacrifices of individuals give meaning to their achievements and honor.
Saint Ambrose emphasizes the importance of the trials and challenges faced by martyrs in defining their legacy and significance. Without these contests or struggles, their ultimate sacrifices would lack value, and the honor they receive as martyrs would diminish. This highlights a broader philosophical theme: achievements are often intertwined with the hardships faced, giving depth and meaning to the recognition received.
In practice
In a speech honoring veterans, one might invoke this quote to illustrate the significance of their sacrifices.
A good youth ought to have a fear of God, to be subject to his parents, to give honor to his elders, to preserve his purity; he ought not to despise humility, but should love forbearance and modesty. All these are an ornament to youthful years.
Where a man's heart is, there is his treasure also.
The emperor is in the Church, not above the Church.
A kindness received should be returned with a freer hand.
It is ingrained in all living creatures, first of all, to preserve their own safety, to guard against what is harmful, to strive for what is advantageous.
The best way to use the gold of the Redeemer is for the redemption of those in peril.
The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free is the task.
Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
He look'd in years, yet in his years were seen A youthful vigor, and autumnal green.
Itβs not so much that nothing means anything but more that it keeps meaning nothing. thereβs no release, just gurus and self- appointed gods and hucksters. the more people say, the less there is to say. even the best books are dry sawdust.
(The psuedoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate empiric failure and ignore empiric success.)
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